Kate said to me, “Whenever I work a case with you, I feel like I’m one step
I replied philosophically, “Sometimes the law gets in the way of truth and justice.”
“Do you teach that in your class at John Jay?”
“For your information, since 9/11, a lot of people in law enforcement have adopted the Corey Method, meaning the ends justify the means.”
“Post-9/11, we’ve all done a little of that. But this case has nothing to do with Islamic terrorism.”
“How could you know that at this point?”
“Come on, John. I don’t see
“Well, think about this-Madox has a self-proclaimed history of fighting America’s enemies as a private enterprise. Right?”
“Yes, but-”
“Communism is gone; now, enter Islam. He told us he’s not too involved in the war on terrorism, which means he’s involved. Correct?”
She stayed silent for a while, then answered, “Yes.”
“Right. And, of course, you have the oil thing, which is a connection to all of the above.”
“
“I’m not sure.” But a picture was starting to form in my mind, and it had to do with Bain Madox, nuclear weapons, and terrorism-not a good combination. Kate, however, was not quite ready to deal with that information, so I said to her, “Well, Harry thought someone would understand, so when we think about it, we’ll know.”
She nodded, then changed the subject. “One thing I’m sure of now is that Madox murdered Harry-or had him murdered.”
“He did it himself. Maybe with Carl.”
“That may not be easy to prove in a court of law.”
Cop killers don’t always get to a court of law, but I didn’t say that.
Kate read my mind anyway and said, “Please don’t do anything stupid. The ends do
I didn’t respond.
We left Potsdam and headed south on Route 56. It was 6:01 P.M., and the road was getting dark. The windows of the scattered houses were lit, and I could see smoke rising from chimneys. The Columbus Day holiday was coming to an end; dinner was on the stove. Tomorrow was a workday and a school day. Normal people were gathered around the television, or the fireplace, or wherever normal people gathered.
Kate seemed to know what I was thinking and said, “We could buy a weekend house that would eventually become our retirement home.”
“Most people don’t retire to the snow and ice.”
“We could learn to ski and ice-skate. You could learn to hunt and shoot bears.”
I smiled, and we held hands.
Her cell phone rang, and she looked at it. “Private. Probably Walsh.”
“Take it.”
She answered, listened, then said, “We’re on our way there, Tom.” She listened again, then responded, “We went to the hospital and made a positive ID on Harry.”
Whatever Walsh said, it wasn’t nice, and Kate held the phone away from her ear in a theatrical gesture. I could hear Walsh fulminating.
I don’t like it when someone screams at my wife, so I took the phone from Kate and heard Walsh conclude, “You’re his supervisor, so
I replied, “Hi, Tom. Kate’s husband here.”
“Oh… do you take your wife’s calls, too? I’m speaking to Kate.”
“No, you’re speaking to me. If you ever raise your voice to my wife again, I’ll take you apart. Understand?”
He didn’t answer immediately, then said, “You’re going down, pal.”
“Then you’re going with me.”
“I don’t think so.”
“I do. And by the way, I scrolled through Harry’s cell phone, and you forgot to tell us you called him Sunday night, and the duty officer was calling all through the night.”
This kept him quiet for a second. Then he asked, “So what?”
I felt that our professional relationship was deteriorating, and that he was contemplating how best to involve me in an involuntary career event, i.e., having me fired. I said to him, “Despite your best efforts, I
He surprised me by saying, “If you do, let me know what you find.”
I guess this meant that Washington was not being totally straight with him, which may or may not have been true. In any case, Walsh was following orders, and I was not, which was causing Special Agent in Charge Thomas Walsh some problems. I said, “Eventually, you’ll thank me for my extraordinary initiative.”
“Your fucking initiative looks a lot like insubordination and failure to follow orders. Also, you’re spending a lot of time and energy investigating the Bureau instead of doing your job.”
“What’s my job?”
“Your job was to find Harry. He’s found. You can come home.”
“No, now I need to find his killer.”
“
“Because I don’t trust
“Then resign.”
“Tell you what-if I come up empty on this case, you’ll have my resignation on your desk.”
“When?”
“A week.”
“That’s a deal. Saves me the trouble of filling out the paperwork to fire you.”
“And I don’t want to hear any more bullshit about us being taken off this case.”
“One week.”
I handed the phone back to Kate, who said, “Tom, please call Major Schaeffer and tell him we are the designated investigating agents on this case, and to extend to us all the requisite courtesies and so forth.”
Walsh said something, and Kate replied, “No, we don’t have any new information or leads, but if we do, we’ll certainly share them with you.”
I guess she forgot about finding that writing in Harry’s pocket, and us speaking to the medical examiner. Selective memory is part of the Corey Method of dealing with the bosses.
She listened for a while, then said, “I understand.”
Kate started to say something else, then realized the phone was dead. She shut it off.
I asked, “Understand what?”
“Understand that we have seven days to perform a miracle, and if we don’t, we’re history.”
“No problem.”
“And it better be a big miracle. Nothing small like finding a dumb hunter who admits to killing Harry by accident.”
“Okay. That’s reasonable.”
“And if we’re going after Mr. Bain Madox for murder, and we fail, Walsh will see to it that we both wind up as security guards at Kmart.”
“This is getting challenging.”
“Right. Well, you opened your big mouth.”
“Thank you for reminding me. What else?”
“Well… he said our investigation is limited to a possible homicide. Not to anything else that concerns Madox. That’s for the Justice Department to handle.”
